There’s a surprising thing about the FREE STUFF and “save money” category in direct response.
It’s not just pensioners or those on fixed income that relish secret ways of saving money or getting free stuff. [Read more…]
Here’s another WINNER in print from the “Save Money” category of direct response. Heading into 2023, I’d redub it the FREE STUFF category.
The book sold fabulously well be print from 2005-2011.
J.D. is one of the all-time great alternative health publishers and direct response advertisers in print. [Read more…]
Here’s a hot “free plus shipping” from Newsmax.
It’s in the same mold as “The Ultimate Hyperinflation Defense Manual,” even bleaker on the gloom & doom spectrum. [Read more…]
Read this ad 50 years after it first ran, …
And be amazed at the CRACKING copy… the POPPING persuasion… the pièce de résistance of research.
Yes, this is one of those legendary “Ogilvy Orchestrations” that helped propel Merrill Lynch into the pole position of investment advisors for decades. [Read more…]
Here’s a marketer who came on the “coins and currency” scene later than many of the long established players, like Littleton Coin.
But I’d say he knows more about generating response and “making money with money” than anyone in the space today.
And the fact that he’s officially retired makes it all the more interesting! [Read more…]
For those unsatisfied with their output…
Look no further than the fine folks at the Harvard Business Review.
They’ve got you covered on all things time, talent and technology that can make — or break — your business. [Read more…]
It’s hard to imagine a bigger book breakthrough in the world of health and fitness than Bill Phillips’ Body for Life.
That’s not just because of the more than 3 million copies in print, translated into 15 languages.
No, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. [Read more…]
“Crazy Bob,” “The Polish Maverick” “Bet-A-Million Bob”… Bob Stupak had more monikers than anyone could keep track of.
But his list of sobriquets is easily outdone by job titles: casino magnate, world-record motorcycle racer, professional poker player, mayoral candidate and Harlem Globetrotter for a day.
Not on this list is, perhaps, the thing he was best at — marketer. [Read more…]
“How does Dan Kennedy do so many things so well?”
“How does anyone accomplish so much in the span of a few hours?”
“How does Kennedy manage to come up with cracking copy… seemingly every time?”
These are some of the questions I’ve pondered about that prolific marketer, author, educator (and a dozen other things) over the years.
Without a doubt, it’s Kennedy’s direct mail I admire the most. How else do you explain fawning over a direct mail piece from waaay back in 2010? [Read more…]
“Who’s Burning More Fat?
Is it Emma, who works out at least an hour a day in the gym? (Gee, THAT looks like fun doesn’t it?
Or is it Nicole, who likes to be fit and trim, but doesn’t believe in the ‘gym thing?’
Nicole! How is this possible? [Read more…]
Forget about the legion of space ads…
Gene Schwartz was so prolific he had even more corporate registrations than some copywriters have ads…
More companies than aging Hollywood stars have facelifts. [Read more…]
A full page ad in the dwindling pages of Parade magazine still counts for something in 2022.
No advertiser who’s a frequent visitor in Parade gets there by accident. [Read more…]
I heard Dan Kennedy comment on this some years ago.
He gave an example using Robert Ringer’s, Action!: Nothing Happens Until Something Moves. [Read more…]
This isn’t so much a market as… a mindset, a mood and a zeitgeist.
Bottom Line isn’t selling a mere book — they’re selling freedom, independence, mobility, vitality and as the French say, “joie de vivre.”
Remember the “ancestor” to this package: “The Great Nursing Home Escape.” [Read more…]
Ronald Reagan made a memorable quote while on the campaign trail on September 1, 1980 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Speaking of Jersey City… [Read more…]
I’m a big fan of the A.B.A. School.
What’s ABA? No, it’s not the American Basketball Association of yore and certainly not the American Bar Association!
No, you know what I’m talking about.
It’s the… [Read more…]
Perhaps, by this time next year, the alternative-health informational print ad will possess the same status as the Dodo bird: EXTINCT.
But for now (late 2022), this Newsmax Health print-to-online promo continues getting insertions in newspapers and magazines. [Read more…]
I’ve shared quite a few emails over the years with this eternally young beauty brand of one.
Mostly about “Schwartzy,” as she liked to call him… a.k.a. Eugene Schwartz.
Like a lot of overly ambitious entrepreneurs who get into the self-publishing business (the *self-punishing* business is an hysterical typo!) Oleda found herself with a basement full of books nobody wanted to buy! [Read more…]
Just look at the composite words of this headline:
You… BIG MONEY… home… TV. [Read more…]
Here’s a now “old school” business opportunity pitch that mailed for years.
It’s wrapped in that tried and tested lead of “the apprentice” — which dominated biz-op, long before television.
Roberts’ lead generation advertising excels at product positioning. [Read more…]
If the late Canadian philosopher and media theory pioneer, Marshall McLuhan, had only come up with the one dictum: [Read more…]
Perhaps I’m too consumed with the Marshall McLuhan gem, “the medium is the message.”
What’s it mean?
It means THE WAY people receive information matters just as much (or even more!) than the actual information itself.
Think about this. [Read more…]
“OILFLATION” is one of those one-word portmanteau headlines popular in financial direct mail, to use a high-falutin word that would never come up in ad copy, meaning a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others.
OPECALYPSE is another in the same vein, same market.
This promo for Stephen Leeb’s Complete Investor includes the bearish, bordering on the Mad Max-dystopian premiums: [Read more…]
Howard Ruff was the man of the hour (or more like the decade in the 80s) in the financial publishing world powered by direct response.
This 1981 ad on the now timely topic of inflation hails from Times Books, which Mel Martin was the marquis writer for the 1970s. [Read more…]
This article was originally published in the early 2000s by the late direct mail copywriter and artist, Albert Saxon. [Read more…]